Opposition looks to target
government on delay in winter session of Parliament Economic Times,
November 13, 2017

New Delhi : The
leaders of some Opposition parties have started confabulations
on taking on the government over the “delay” in convening the
winter session of Parliament.

The leaders have said that this was part of a deliberate attempt
to prevent the Opposition from raising 'uncomfortable questions'
on the floor of the House while the campaign for Gujarat polls
was on in full swing. Some of the parties are considering the
option of jointly taking up the matter with the President.

For the record, AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said on Monday
that his party would exercise “all democratic options” to mobile
and intensify protest against the attempt to “subvert the
parliamentary system.”

Congress insiders later said that some Opposition leaders
including Anand Sharma of Congress, Sitaram Yechury of CPM,
Sharad Yadav of JDU rebel group and some others have held
informal discussions for exploring the possibility of a joint
Opposition agitation over the issue.

Acknowledging that various Opposition parties were in touch with
each other on the issue and maintaining the government had
already been made aware of the Opposition’s feeling on the
issue, deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Anand
Sharma, said “Gujarat elections can’t be a reason for the
government to delay the Parliament session. We see government’s
deliberate attempt to scuttle the session because it is scared
to face difficult questions on the floor of Parliament when BJP
is already feeling the heat of the campaign in Gujarat.”

CPM chief Yechury said “ever since the BJP government assumed
office in 2014, there has been systematic attempts to undermine
the functioning of Parliament, including attempts to bypass the
Rajya Sabha by introducing all kinds of bills as money bills.
Now the government is trying to undo the winter session itself
as it wants to prevent the Opposition from raising issues such
as the disastrous consequences of demonetisation and GST to
issues of farmers to the Jay Shah-Shaurya Doval issues.”

Tewari said: “We
want to ask the government why the delay in convening winter
session of Parliament, which usually starts in the third week of
November.

Clearly, the government is running away from convening session
when burning issues such as the aftermath of demeonetisation,
GST, state of economy are bound to be raised in the Houses.”